Container closing and opening means



Nov. 8, 1938. D. ROSEN QONTAINER CLOSING AND OPENING MEANS Filed Aug. 16, 1937 Patented Nov. 8, 1938 PATENT OFFICE CONTAINER CLOSING AND OPENING MEANS David Rosen, New York, N. Y., assignor to Metallic Container Corporation, Jersey City, N. 1., a corporation of New Jersey Application August 16, 1937, Serial No. 159,314

3 Claims.

This invention relates to container closing and opening means, and applies more particularly to fibrous containers employed for fluids, granular substances, cofiee and various other products.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide an improved container having means for closing an end of a container wherein stresses set up in the closing means during the closing operation may be relieved in order to open all or a portion of said closed end and to loosely re-close the container if desired.

A further object of the present invention is to provide means for closing and opening a container which, after user opens said container,

will permit the user to manipulate a top end wall portion of the container in such manner that an opening may be formed as the container is brought to user's lips and to be practically closed as the container is removed therefrom, while an- 30 other top end wall portion is held in interlocked relation by a clamping member.

I am aware that it has been proposed to clamp the collapsed 'upper end of a container and to require the user to cut a slot through the wall of the container at a point below the clamping member, resulting in an objectionable container if a portion of the contents is allowed to remain for later use and the user folds top portion over the cut portion: whereas it is an object of the present invention to provide means by which an interlocking key member may be employed to spread one wing of the clamping member away from previously clamped surface of interposed wall portion of the container in order to loosen the clamping member so that it may be slidably positioned to permit a suitable sized orifice to be formed through which a required portion of the contents may be poured, and to permit upper end portions to be manually pressed together in such manner that the clamping member may be slidably positioned to loosely reclamp end portions of the container in event remaining contents of the container is to be protected, or if desired, to remove the clamp entirely.

with these and other objects in view, the present invention consists in the provision of certain novel features, comprising forms, constructions, combinations and arrangements of parts more fully hereinafter disclosed in the specification,

illustrated in the drawing and particularly pointed out in the claims.

I have provided a drawing, which while serving to illustrate certain embodiments of the present invention as applied to a container having a trunu cated conical form, it is obvious that a container having a cylindrical, square or rectangular form of body portion with folded upper wall portions adapted to form a mouth of the container could have been selected for purpose of illustration; the illustrations are not intended as being limita- 5 tions and it should be understood that the present invention may be embodied in various forms and constructions other than those shown in which:

Fig. 1 is an elevational view of a conventional l0 type of container such as may be used for milk, but provided with novel means for closing and opening the container, in accordance with the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged 15 scale, in sectional elevation taken on line 2-2 of Figure 1.

Fig. 3 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged scale, in sectional elevation, illustrating actuated positions of interlocking key member and one 20 wing of the clamping member shown in Fig. 2.

Fig. 4 is a fragmentary view on an enlarged scale, in sectional elevation, taken on line 4-4 of Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view, of an. 25 upper portion of a conventional container provided with means for closing and opening said container, in accordance with my invention.

Like numerals refer to similar parts throughout the several views. 30

Referring to the drawing, a conventional container I0 is adapted to be closed by a clamping member ll formed of flexible metallic or synthetic strip material provided with an outwardly channeled side portion l2 formed throughout the 36 length of the clamping member into which are pressed upper end portions I3 and H of the collapsed wall of the container and these upper end portions .are held in interlocked relation with inner surface of the outwardly channeled side 40 portion of the clamping member by interlocking key member I 5. The interlocking key member has a cross section having a minor axis and a major axis. The clamping member is provided with a longitudinal bend to form a top ridge 45 portion I6 from which extends a downwardly sloping portion ll terminating in longitudinal bend 18 from which extends a depending wing portion l-9 serving to retain collapsed mouth end portions of the container and the interlocking 50 key member under stress. This stress may be more effectively set up by squeezing the sloping portion ll against the interposed top end of portion I 4 of collapsed wall of the container simultaneously with application of pressure against outer surfaces of opposed sides of the clamping member. The interlocking key member is provided with a depending end portion to provide a lever which maybe moved in an arcuate path when manually altering the axial relation of the interlocking key member. Outer surface of the container wall relieved from clamping pressure by the wing portion of the clamping member is shown at 2| in Fig. 3 and in Fig.4. An orifice 22 formed by manually shaping exposed upper end portions 23 is shown in Fig. 5; Points where pressure may be manually applied to the exterior of container wall to facilitate spreading the exposed end wall portions apart to form a mouth for the container are indicated by "24 and 25. Points where pressure may be manually applied to facilitate bringing exposed end wall portions in alignment with shifted clamping member are indicated by 26 in Fig. 5. v

Practical use of a container having closing and opening means in accordance with one described embodiment of my invention may be described as follows:

Assuming that the container has been filled with a quantity of milk, the upper end portions of the collapsed wall of the container are pressed against inner surface of the outwardly channeled side portion of the clamping member, the interlocking key member serves to retain said contacted surfaces in interlocked relation as pressure is simultaneously applied to a lower portion of the slop ing portion, wing portion and outwardly channeled .side portion of the clamping member, thereby setting up stresses which insure a tightly sealed joint at the inner wall surface of the interposed wall portion of the container. To open the container, the depending end portion of the interlocking key member may be manually actuated in an arcuate path of movementin order to set up rotary movement of the interlocking key member while altering the position of the major axis of said key member while spreading the wing portion of the clamping member. I prefer to continue rotary movement of the interlocking key member beyond the position shown in Fig. 3 until it reaches an upwardly turned position as shown in Fig. 4. It will be observed when referring to Fig. 3 that the sloping portion of the clamping member has been swung out of contact with the upper end of the container wall as the wing portion is spread outwardly by movement of the interlocking key member the clamping member will assume a loosened relation to interlocked and wing contacted parts when terminating rotation of the interlocking key member as indicated in Fig. 4 thereby permitting the clamping member and the interlocking key member to be slidably arranged as indicated in Fig. 5. Interlocking and clamping pressure having been removed from the exposed upper end portions of the container, permits extemal pressure to be applied manually at opposed points 24 and in order to spread apart the exposed upper end portions of the container thereby forming an aperture through which a portion or all of the contents may be poured. If desired, the interlocking key member may be withdrawn completely before slidably moving the clamping member. Also, if a portion of the contents is permittedto remain in the container for subsequent use, pressure may tioned to loosely re-close the collapsed upper wall mouth portion of the container.

aisaeoa While leaving the clamping member in position approximately as illustrated in Fig. 5 the user may drink milk directly from the container and while holding the container may use same hand to manipulate wall portions 28 with thumb and index finger in order to collapse the end wall portions and sufficiently close the aperture each time the container is removed from user's lips,

and each time the container is being brought to the lips the user may manipulate wall portion 24 in order to form a convenient orifice 22 through which milk may be released; thereby meeting a practical requirement as at picnics when annoyed by insects. Should the user prefer, the depending end portion 20 oi the interlocking key member may be turned downward.

Where the word fibrous is used, it shall be understood to include coatedor-uncoated paper or fibre. Having described certain embodiments of the present invention, it is not my intention to limit the invention otherwise than by the terms of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. An article of the class described comprising a container formed of compressed fibrous material having its mouth end wall portions collapsed, a clamping member formed of flexible material fitted over said collapsed wall portions, a wing portion of said clamping member provided with an outwardly extending longitudinal corrugation,

said collapsed wall portions having interlocked corrugated portions, one of said corrugated portions being interlocked with said wing portion, another wing portion of said clamping member being folded against an opposed side of said collapsed end wall portions, and having an interlocking key member'pressed into a depressed corrugated portion of said collapsed end wall portions and retained in interlocked relation by said folded wing portion united with and acting in conjunction with said first named wing portion of said clamping member under stresses introduced therein.

2. An article of the class described comprising a container formed of compressed fibrous material having its mouth end wall portions collapsed, a clamping member formed of flexible material fitted over said collapsed wall portions, a wing portion of said clamping member provided with an outwardly extending longitudinal corrugation,

, said collapsed wall portions having interlocked corrugated portions, one of said corrugated portions being interlocked with said wing portion, another wing portion of said clamping member being folded against an opposed side of said collapsed end wall portions, an interlocking key member pressed into a depressed corrugated portion of said collapsed end wall portions and retained in interlocked relation by said folded wing portion united with and acting in conjunction with said first named wing portion of said clamping member under stresses introduced therein, and said interlocking key member having a depending end portion adapted to be manually actuated to swing said folded-wing portion outwardly by an arcuate movement of said depending end portion to alter the axial relation of said key member.

3. A closure adapted to seal collapsed end wall portions of a fibre container, comprising a strip of flexible material folded longitudinally to form two wing portions, one of said wing portions having an outwardly extending channeledportion formed longitudinally in said wing vportion adapted to receive interlocked corrugated portions'of said wall portions, an interlocking key member adapted to be pressed into an opposed side of said interlocked corrugated portions, and having another of said wing portions united with said first named wing portion by a laterally sloping longitudinal connecting portion; said closure adapted to be locked in interlocking relation with said container under stresses introduced by applying pressure externally at said wing portions and simultaneously altering transverse angularity of said sloping portion.

DAVID ROSEN. 

